Elementing your bow DOES help AoE damage (w/ pics)

[power_one]

Well, did some more testing last night to see if elementing on your bow helps with aoe damage. I tested on Captain Carrierbombs as they were handy and I was looking for a mob neutral to both fire and ice.

These images are an example of the average damage difference between the two bows. It's not a single example of each with 1 high and 1 low damage. I understand than there are small differences between identical attacks so these are what I would consider the "average" damage of each skill with different equipment on the same mob.

I started out with 2 +8 Guardian bows, one clean, one with +6 fire I bought in a shop the other day.




Ice Arrow

First, clean bow using Ice arrow.


Now +6 fire elemented bow.


As you can see it adds about 20 dmg. Not hardly worth it but every little bit helps.

Flame Arrow

Clean bow


+6 Fire bow


Now you're talking! Adds around 60 damage to the burn, not sure what the initial damage difference is but probably near the same.

Arrow Rain

Clean bow


+6 Fire bow


Similar to Ice, only adds about 30 dmg, but times 4 hits that's still a fair amount.

Piercing Arrow

Clean bow


+6 Fire


Finally, piercing arrow again adds around 20 damage.

Conclusion

As you can see it helps. Not a ton but it does make a difference.
I've not tested it with any other elements but I've heard none of the other elements help.

---edit---
Removed crit damage images, was not related to this topic and was just adding confusion and unneccessary debate.

[dyingsun]

yay finally someone gives evidence.
It also changes JA and all the non elemental skills at least when I did it.
I did not know that it altered power of ice arrow though.

It's helpful so I hope it get stickied . XD
Not only it tells that elementing help very little bit, but it shows what aoe skill the ranger has.

[opm49602]

hmmmm interesting, but i wonder what would happen to skill damage if you had an elec element bow, cause as far as i can tell you tend to hit 0's alot more often if your wepon is the same element as the mob you are fighting

anyway thanks for that power

[power_one]

When I have some time I'll go repeat this test on a fire mob and a water mob, mabye even all of them and see if the effects are the same.

Some day if I find another +8 Gbow that has water or make one I'll add more to this.

[bignub1]

You're an idiot for thinking that fire is going to help at ALL against electric mobs... Go retest on Irens or on Elderguards (any wind mob will work).

Don't do stupid stuff like this if you wanna make a point... it is simply counterproductive (much like most post)

Thanks for the flaming in advance... I hate noobs.

[opm49602]

i honnestly don't think power is a noob
everyone knows that a certain element is stronger than others
fire>wind>earth>electric>water>fire
everyone knows that table, power was testing to see if fire on a bow did more damage to a mob that it's ment to be netural aganst, and what do you know it does alil more damage
so jybyrd shhhh if you don't know what your talknig about

[xspringrainx]

You're an idiot for thinking that fire is going to help at ALL against electric mobs... Go retest on Irens or on Elderguards (any wind mob will work).

Don't do stupid stuff like this if you wanna make a point... it is simply counterproductive (much like most post)

Thanks for the flaming in advance... I hate noobs.

elementing weapon will strengthen your spells of that one element, regardless what kind of mob you are fighting


i.e. fire staff will improve your fire spells against ALL kind of mobs
in this case the most noticable damage increase is Flame arrow

fire is the only good element for ranger, because all ranger skills are non-elemental, except flame arrow damage over time which deals fire damage

[lcm15]

and what bout ice arrow? i'm pretty dam sure that would be water elemented

[xspringrainx]

and what bout ice arrow? i'm pretty dam sure that would be water elemented

no
ice arrow is non-elemented
ice arrow damage is the same to all kind of mobs
flame arrow initial damage is also non-elemented, but the damage over time is fire-elemented (and INT-based)

[magicd45]

30 dmg is not really based completely on elements
i do a range of att (with a bow without elements):
630~680

[power_one]

I did test the results more than once. Everytime the bow with the +6 fire did more damage than the clean +8 bow, across all 4 aoe skills. Yes, the damage is neglible for all but the Flame Arrow but the point is it does help somewhat.

[supersharpy]

Very nice. Some proof to this theory.

[irregularhunter]

Since the theory is proven, IMO I have to ultimately conclude that its not worth it.

[power_one]

I guess it depends on whether you can afford more than 1 bow to train with. I generally carry 3 and since gianting with the Gbow is better I don't worry that my Angels has fire on it. More damage is more damage. If I had plans to ever sell my Angels or Gbows I'd probably worry more about adding an element to them, or if I was a BJ I wouldn't element but for a Ranger it seems to be worth it to me. But, to each his own, as you noticed, the difference is small so you could go either way. For me, 30-60 extra damage per skill use is worth it.

[irregularhunter]

Not like when some others said that Maxing Bow Mastery wasn't worth it. I had the same say about it when every bit of damage helps, but Maxing Bow Mastery = No Price.

Having to go out and spend more money on Spros to element bows just to increase AoE damage by 30 - 60 incriments of damage (Elemental Refinement Level 3 - 6) doesn't seem worth it. But when it's direct attack using arrows, it seems worth it, such as G.Bow.

[power_one]

I think even +3 elem will affect the damage. I bought that Gbow with +6 fire in a shop so it didn't cost me any gpros but even then, a little bit of elem would probably be better than a clean bow.

If I get bored I'll pick up 5 NPC bows and make one for each elem at +3 and try the test again.

[endymionsig]

Nice work Power, as usual, but doesn't seem worth it at all to element bow. For Eles, tho, that's another matter <_<;;

[nightmare13]

nice guild but there's a problem the mob that ur fighting is electric and ur useing a fire + bow. so ya it isnt worth it if ur not fighting what the element on ur bow is strong too. So go aoe Iren and ur'll see the better damage with the fire bow then the clean one

[yhh2k03]

Single pics cannot prove anything, since dmg can vary by that little amount. Sometimes, if you really try it alot with both bows, you might find that the (for example) electric bow is doing less dmg on water mobs than the normal bow at the same +ed state.

[petmastery]

No to mention that crit damage varies... some times it's X2 normal damage but other times crit can be X1.5 normal damage... so that angle bow vs guardian bow is a bad comparason b/c any bj can tell you that crit damage is based off your base damage. and angel's base damage > gbows base damage.

[power_one]

FYI, the damage pictures in my thread were not just some random picture of a high dmg vs the low dmg. That was an average difference between an elemented bow and a non-elemented bow.

Before you shoot down what someone has taken the time, effort, and expense to actually try out in the game, please go try for yourself. When you have proof that it does NOT add damage to the AoE skills of a Ranger then you can post your proof. Thanks.

[vizierde_]

Anyone else realize that it's quite possible to have a 30~40 damage difference in hits with a higher base damage on an elemented weapon when compared to a lower base damage of an unelemented weapon?

Until you all try this sometime, stop bashing on power2. I myself have seen a damage increase against enemies of all elements with every Ranger AoE on my Guardian Bow when I element it +3 Fire.

[despair314159]

great post, power.

[bazzz]

ill add fire soon, thanks power, for the effort.

Bazzzzz

[petmastery]

well I still dont get why gbow would have a higher crit... they have higher crit rates but not crit damage... so by all means gbow should have lower crit damage simply b/c they have a lower base damage... so if what u say is true and are averages of your tests... then report it as a bug... b/c 1k damage difference for a 30 lvl difference bow is rediculous.